CIA Denies Broadwell's Benghazi Prison Story

The CIA has now flatly denied Paula Broadwell’s claims that the CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya, was housing Libyan terrorists until it was destroyed in the September 11 assault. Broadwell claimed on October 26 that her sources had told her that the story was still being vetted.

The fact that nobody else reported Broadwell’s allegations have raised the possibility that she got the information from now-disgraced former CIA Director David Petraeus during a pillow-talk session. Broadwell had alleged, “I don’t know if a lot of you have heard this, but the CIA annex had actually had taken a couple of Libyan militia members prisoner. And they think that the attack on the consulate was an effort to try to get these prisoners back.”

That revelation puts two alternative theories of why Petraeus stepped down on the table. First, he violated classified information by telling Broadwell about this, if indeed he did; he stepped down to avoid prosecution. Second, the CIA was involved in something that the Obama administration does not want the American public to know about – and by stepping down, Petraeus steps out of the line of fire, or at least outside the chain of command. The normal remedy for CIA malfeasance would be Petraeus’ firing.